"It's one of the niceties of the English legal system that you're not allowed any counsel if you're a witness but maybe that will change," she said. "Maybe that's good."

During her two days of evidence, Lawson had admitted taking cocaine six times with her late first husband, John Diamond, following his discovery that he had terminal cancer. She also told the court she had taken the drug again in 2010 – at a time when she felt she was being subjected to acts of "intimate terrorism" by Saatchi – and had smoked "the odd joint" during the last year of her marriage to the millionaire art collector.

Lawson, wearing a sweetheart neck black dress, told Good Morning America that she couldn't remember much about her time in the witness box because "you are so focused on answering the questions to the best of your ability that actually you don't have the normal awareness of yourself". But maybe, she added, that was a good thing.

"To be honest, to have not only your private life but distortions of your private life put on display is mortifying but, you know, there are people going through an awful lot worse," she said. "To dwell on any of it would be self pity and I don't like to do that."

Reflecting a little more on the trial – during which she frequently and sternly asked counsel not to mention her children by name – she added: "My only desire really was to protect my children as much as possible, which, alas, I couldn't do. But that's what I wanted to do."

With that, she segued deftly on to the more familiar and comforting subject of food: "Actually, since then, I've eaten a lot of chocolate, had a very good Christmas and I'm into the new year."

The chocolate reference raised a laugh from the audience, which signalled the end of the Lawson interview. The show then moved on to the other chef judges on The Taste, including Anthony Bourdain and a segment on pie-tasting.

The Taste has already run for a season in the US. While it began with strong viewing figures and ratings of six million, the audience had dwindled to half that by the final episode.

Its UK premiere will cap the most tumultuous few months of Lawson's professional life.

In a statement released after the jury acquitted the Grillos, Lawson complained of being "maliciously vilified" in court simply for doing her "civic duty".

But the court also heard claims that the Grillos had been "devoured like lambs" in the bitter emotional and legal battle raging between their former bosses. At one point, the sisters, from southern Italy, were even compared to Berlin at the end of the second world war, subject to "crushing forces on both sides".

As Anthony Metzer QC, representing Elisabetta Grillo, explained to the jury before it retired: "This is a case with no winners."